"Bullsh*t is ubiquitous," said the 30-year-old Canadian writer. "The thinking behind the book is that I just want to complain. I am a crank but I want to prove I'm a well researched crank with well founded arguments.

"I want to prove that ad creep is everywhere and that there is a hyperbole loop – for instance, today's dish washing liquid is the best ever just like the one before it. The pharmaceutical companies are probably the most disingenuous. They have become part and parcel of North American culture and turned public health into a cash cow."

It is not just the rampant commercialism prolonged by the advertising industry that infuriates Penny. She is also despairing of the mass media providing the outlets for marketing messages lacking truth.

"One of my favorite examples is when I was watching a TV news item on an attention deficient disorder drug and watching the news readers go through the symptoms – difficulty to focus and fragmented attention span – and commenting that they had all of them which is going to help sales of the drug," she said.

"Life in North America is at the intersection of too much information and too little information. For instance, there is far too much information about trivial things - the dominant news item about Africa recently has been Angelina Jolie's visit. We are inundated with news of dubious value."

A lecturer at University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Penny feels there is public reaction against the ‘BS' culture that is also illustrated by the Princeton professor, Harry G Frankfurt, in his surprise best-seller On Bullsh*t.

"I read the Harry Frankfurt book when I was researching this book. I liked it a lot - he has a very elegant style of describing things," said Penny, who is unsure about the future. "People are becoming weary of bullsh*t and don't always accept it. Unfortunately, I don't offer any solutions."